Page 38 of Love Fire

My eyes widen and my feet move before I can think. I try to open the basement door, but it won’t budge. Hank must’ve locked it on his way out.

“Fuck!” I cry out.

I try to bust it down with my shoulder. I fail miserably. I turn the knob vigorously and it still won’t open.

I hold myself on the railing and kick at the door. After trying three times, it finally opens. I push it open and sprint outside.

I run towards the entrance. I can’t help but think the worst has already happened. I fling open the front door.

“Stop!” I scream.

33

BRENT

Bullets whizz past my head as I charge outside. If these assholes think they can attack my home, they have another thing coming. I’ll have them begging for mercy before long.

As soon as I step out into the open, I shift. My scales erupt from my skin and my wings flap out of my back. I quickly take to the sky as the rest of my body takes dragon form.

To my surprise, these gunmen don’t seem phased. Usually when I shift, it will shock my opponent long enough to give me time to attack. But these guys don’t even blink, they just keep firing at me.

Most bullets fly past me but a few bounce off my scales. I’m protected for now, but a couple more direct hits could take me down, even in dragon form. The one good thing is that all their attention is on me, that means no stray bullets going into the house and maybe hitting someone else.

I look down at my attackers and count ten. That shouldn’t be too tough. I just need to be quick.

“He’s a dragon now,” I hear one of them yell.

“Good,” one of them responds with a level of calm I’ve never heard before in battle.

I don’t have time to process that just yet. With a lightning fast speed, I dive down towards the gunmen. I swoop up one of them in my claws and fly up before dropping them to the ground. That one gunman crashes to the ground with a hard thud, but his friends hardly flinch and keep their guns on me.

It dawns on me. This is what they want. I can’t believe I fell for this. These are dragons hunters, the guys who have been hunting us to make iridescent. They must have some plan to take me down as a dragon. I still don’t know how they’ve been catching dragons, if they have some special weapon or something, but I’d rather not find out.

I swoop down back towards my house. I quickly shift back to my human form. I take cover behind a pillar out front as I pull out my gun. I guess I have to do this the old-fashioned way.

Bullets start chipping away at the pillar and shatter nearby windows. I need to act fast. Nine more guys to kill. I’ve walked away from worse odds. The only difference is, this time I have people to protect inside. Alessandro and Erin. Erin, despite what I just overheard, I can’t bring myself to abandon her.

“BRENT?” Alessandro’s voice calls out over the sound of gunfire.

I’m snapped back to the action. I need to focus or else we are all dead. “Stay inside!”

“But, why don’t we shift-”

“They hunt dragons,” I shout back. "That might be a bad idea.”

“Then what do we do?” I can’t see Alessandro, but his voice is trembling. He is terrified. So am I, but I can’t show that now.

I try to peek out from around the pillar but can’t see much before more gunfire forces me back. If I can get closer, this will be easy. Perfect aim is just one thing Draconis Fire requires from its agents.

“Give me cover fire,” I say. I don’t hear Alessandro respond but I do hear the click of a gun. “NOW!”

Alessandro leans out of the front door and starts firing. I sprint to a new point of cover. In the chaos, a bullet grazes my arm. Blood spurts out. But it’s not enough to stop me as I take cover behind the tree.

I hear the unmistakable sound of enemies reloading their guns. Now it's my turn. I step out from behind the tree and open fire. My first bullet hits one of the gunmen between the eyes. Two down. Eight to go.

The remaining bullets in my clip hit another gunman in the back as he tried to run. Three down. I’m usually above shooting an enemy in the back but they attacked my home. Mercy is a thing of the past.

I take the moment of surprise, as my enemies run for cover, to reload without getting back behind cover. Alessandro continues to fire from the house. These guys won’t get away with this.

---